Activist investor Parvus Asset Management has significantly increased its investment in Flutter Entertainment, doubling its stake in the global betting and gaming group shortly after the company issued its 2025 annual results.
A stock exchange filing shows that the London-based fund raised its holding in the NYSE and LSE-listed operator to almost 10.7% on 5 March 2026, up from 5.1%, making it one of the largest shareholders in the business.
Parvus has been on Flutter’s shareholder register for more than a decade but has not publicly disclosed a reason for the increased investment.
The move comes at a volatile moment for Flutter Entertainment, whose share price has fallen sharply following its latest financial results and guidance.
Buying into a market dip
Flutter’s stock has endured a difficult run in the last year. Shares dropped from 9,072p to 7,712p in the immediate aftermath of its annual results announcement and have fallen by more than 54% over the past 12 months, erasing billions from its market cap.
The operator reported revenue of $16.4bn (£12.5bn) for 2025, up 17% year-on-year from $14bn. However, net income results showed a 351% decline from $162m in the black to a loss of $407m for the whole of 2025.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, the operator has forecast modest profit growth of 4% to $2.97bn, alongside projected revenues of $18.4bn.
Leadership attributed the cautious outlook partly to softer customer engagement in the US during the closing stages of the latest NFL season, where the company’s sportsbook brand FanDuel experienced quieter playoff betting activity due to the absence of high-profile teams and players.
Rising costs of player acquisition and retention in the US have also been pinpointed as key factors in the operator’s apprehensive outlook, with the brand having to increase its promotional spend in order to compete stateside.
At the same time, betting companies are beginning to contend with new forms of competition from prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which allow users to trade on the likelihood of events across sports, politics and economics.
Flutter has made moves within the predictions space via the launch of FanDuel Predicts back in December 2025, alongside CME Group.
During its recent earnings call, Flutter Chief Executive Officer Peter Jackson confirmed that prediction markets are viewed as a long-term play by Flutter’s board on total addressable market expansion and “will enable [us] to acquire new sports and entertainment first customers into the FanDuel ecosystem ahead of potential regulation”.
Parvus’ long-term shareholder influence
The increased holding places Parvus among Flutter’s most influential investors. The fund is now the second-largest shareholder, behind Candle Lake Holdings, the investment vehicle of Cayman Islands-based billionaire Kenneth Dart, which controls an 18.6% stake.
Parvus also holds a significant position in Evoke plc, the owner of William Hill, where it owns close to 10% of the business. Evoke is also going through similar struggles to Flutter, with its share price having dipped by nearly 57% in the past year to 28.6p.
Parvus has historically taken an active approach to its investments in the betting sector. A decade ago, it opposed plans for William Hill to merge with Canada’s Amaya Gaming, arguing the deal’s “limited strategic logic would destroy shareholder value”.
Parvus was also among the top five shareholders in Paddy Power when it completed its £5bn merger with Betfair in 2015, the transaction that created the foundations of today’s Flutter Entertainment.
Rocky financial picture for Flutter
Parvus’ stakebuilding follows a year of mixed results for Flutter. The group’s results were partly driven by a $515m impairment, linked to the closure of the Junglee brand in India after a government ban on real-money gaming apps.
Higher costs also weighed on performance, including technology investment of $991m, compounded by sales and marketing spend rising to $3.7bn, while lower sportsbook margins pushed operating profit down dramatically to $36m from $870m the previous year.
Despite the earnings pressure, Flutter continued to highlight strong growth in the US, where FanDuel maintains leadership in both sports betting and iGaming market share.
But strategic expansion continues…
The company has continued to expand its product ecosystem, most recently integrating its PokerStars brand into the FanDuel platform in the US.
Under the move, PokerStars will operate as “PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel” across Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, creating a shared liquidity pool across the three states and allowing players to access poker, casino and sportsbook products through a single FanDuel account.
Flutter has also expanded into the previously-cited prediction markets category through the launch of FanDuel Predicts, signalling its intention to compete directly in the emerging sector.
Jackson has maintained that Flutter’s scale and product innovation position the group well despite regulatory and competitive pressures across multiple regions.
“Flutter delivered strong 2025 results,” he said. “Our unparalleled global scale and ongoing product innovation helped us reach almost 40 million customers across our portfolio of market-leading, local hero brands during the year.”
The company expects a packed sporting calendar, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to provide further engagement opportunities as it works to recover its falling margins.
This may be the nudge that Parvus needed to convince the investment firm to increase its stake in Flutter. A busy sporting year, plus the recent share price slide could well be the reason for such a large injection.
Flutter’s shares have already begun to recover since its annual results were released, rising from the aforementioned figure of 7,712p to a current price of 8,136p, showing early signs of positivity for Parvus.